House Handle, love hate (mostly love but....)

Agent_H said:
Garry thank you for that. Appreciate it!

Do you ever push them back further than straight with the clamps to allow for any remaining natural bend? Sort of over compensate for when you release the pressure?

So at least I was on a similar track with the "risers".

This handle has been in my work area for a couple of years. Every time I have used BLO or BLO/stain, I have wiped my hands or gloves free of excess on this handle.




Would be fun to try to straighten it and it's not going to happen with anything I've tried so far.
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Yes JB I go a little past straight as they will spring back a little.

That one actually would not be to much of a challenge as its a nice slow bend, but will take a couple of heats as its over a wide area. I would just use a larger pot of water to maybe get it in two heats. My best guess would be that you may not need any additional blocks and just a flat surface. I would just sight down it to decide where to put the clamps and how much you will need to move it.

I reserve the right to be wrong and how much further you need to go past straight is a guess that you will get better at with practice.
 
Agent_H said:
Garry thank you for that. Appreciate it!

Do you ever push them back further than straight with the clamps to allow for any remaining natural bend? Sort of over compensate for when you release the pressure?
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I do it like this. I always clamp the haft very slightly past straight. I've pushed them too far before and had to undo some of what I had done.

Steaming%20a%20haft.jpg


I also recommend finishing your haft with your BLO, tung or whatever before straightening. It's the heat you want to do the work. You don't actually want the water to enter the wood.
 
Square Peg, That steam will for sure ruin a finish like varnish or lacquer and a lot of folks will coat the wood with Vaseline or grease to help protect the wood during steaming.
 
garry3 said:
Yes JB I go a little past straight as they will spring back a little.

That one actually would not be to much of a challenge as its a nice slow bend, but will take a couple of heats as its over a wide area. I would just use a larger pot of water to maybe get it in two heats. My best guess would be that you may not need any additional blocks and just a flat surface. I would just sight down it to decide where to put the clamps and how much you will need to move it.

I reserve the right to be wrong and how much further you need to go past straight is a guess that you will get better at with practice.
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I'd never hold someone in account for giving helpful advice here. I did notice the heat gun there in your picture. Did you clamp it and then heat it while it was clamped or start your clamping and then heat it until it gives a little then tighten the clamps?

Square_peg said:
I do it like this. I always clamp the haft very slightly past straight. I've pushed them too far before and had to undo some of what I had done.

Steaming%20a%20haft.jpg


I also recommend finishing your haft with your BLO, tung or whatever before straightening. It's the heat you want to do the work. You don't actually want the water to enter the wood.
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Thank you Square_peg. Between these two posts I have something to experiment with. Seems like you would have to do it several times and gain some experience before a guy can just heat it up and clamp it and expect it to "bend to your will". I bet every handle responds differently to a point. Gives me something to try out. I have some pretty neat old handles that need a new life.

Not meaning to derail the thread. Going to order some handles from HH today. Most likely some 28" straight SB's and a full-size 36" hewing axe handle. My idea is to fit the head, leave the kerf uncut, cut it shorter, and attempt a steam or heat bend it to approximate the one that you fashioned that has a natural offset.

*I do wonder if their octagonalized handles are ever lacquered or if they just run their stock lacquered handles again on a machine. If so then no lacquer seems redundant or not necessary. I figure a phone call would tell me straight out.

Thanks for the tips and pictures. This has been covered here before but someone mentioned getting warped handles and it made me think of the barrel of hickory that is languishing in my shop area.
 
Agent_H said:
*I do wonder if their octagonalized handles are ever lacquered or if they just run their stock lacquered handles again on a machine. If so then no lacquer seems redundant or not necessary.
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The octos on my last order had remnants of lacquer on some of the edges. The process by which they put the sides on the handles removes the lacquer. It does seem redundant to charge for "no lacquer" and for octo. My next order I will experiment by ordering octo and not adding the "no lacquer" option. I doubt they will go out of their way to re-lacquer.
 
BaseCamp said:
The octos on my last order had remnants of lacquer on some of the edges. The process by which they put the sides on the handles removes the lacquer. It does seem redundant to charge for "no lacquer" and for octo. My next order I will experiment by ordering octo and not adding the "no lacquer" option. I doubt they will go out of their way to re-lacquer.
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BaseCamp, that matches up with my previous orders as well.

Since we're talking about that, my best guess is:

1. All their handles are lathed and lacquered during production.
(sorted by quality before or after lacquering I hadn't thought about.)
2. "no lacquer" order is placed, they run the lacquered handles on their equipment.
3. "octagonalized" order is placed, they run the lacquered handles on their equipment.

I assumed this was how they would "handle" custom orders. Otherwise you have three separate processes running. I was curious as some of the octagonalized handles came very thin side to side and at the "crook"- wondered if it was due to two processes, happened to be thin handles to begin with, or their octagonalizing setup just took that much off.

None of this keeps me up at night but since we are all a little more into handles than the average consumer it's interesting.

Who knows? We might be picky pains in the arses for them. lol.
 
I believe that HH sometimes pre-picks the popular handles before they head over to be varnished...the varnish is removed, and the handles are octagon-ized with a slack belt-sander...probably the same sander that shapes the handle after is comes off the copy lathe with the spiral rough cuts...

Peace, Rooster:)
 
RoosterMod said:
I believe that HH sometimes pre-picks the popular handles before they head over to be varnished...the varnish is removed, and the handles are octagon-ized with a slack belt-sander...probably the same sander that shapes the handle after is comes off the copy lathe with the spiral rough cuts...

Peace, Rooster:)
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Nice.

Thank you Rooster.
 
The cheapest way to order from house is to just remove the varnish your self. I have also ordered octagon handles even though I would finish them round to save me some time thinning them myself. I guess I just order based on what I have at the moment. More time than money or more money than time.
 
This seam a good place to ask but if too off topic I apologize
I recently got some handles from house handle and ordered without varnish, do they varnish everything and sand off the varnish if you order without varnish, the reason I ask is because where my hand goes is very skinny like they sanded it twice?
 
Yes, they sand off the lacquer. They lacquer them to help keep the wood dimensionally stable after it's been worked. The last thing they want is moisture getting absorbed into the wood and warping a bunch of finished handles.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Yes, they sand off the lacquer. They lacquer them to help keep the wood dimensionally stable after it's been worked. The last thing they want is moisture getting absorbed into the wood and warping a bunch of finished handles.
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And for powder post beetle control.
 
quinton said:
And for powder post beetle control.
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"Couldn't be happier than a powder post beetle in a handle factory"

Can't say how many times I've heard that. (2 at least- once it typing and a 2nd when I hit "post")
 
BaseCamp said:
Second order from HH. Second order with problems. I ordered 11 handles, 5 of them are comically warped, all AA and "handpicked". Very disappointing. QAQC is seriously lacking. Here is to hoping their CS is better than the products I received.
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I just ordered my first handle for a project carpenter's hatchet. Octagonal, hand picked, no lacquer. Was cheap enough, I hope I don't get a bad one.
 
GrizzlyBear said:
I just ordered my first handle for a project carpenter's hatchet. Octagonal, hand picked, no lacquer. Was cheap enough, I hope I don't get a bad one.
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You'd think with email and digital cameras being cheap, easy and fast for an extra couple of dollars or so they could picture your order (or show you a selection to choose from) in advance of shipping them out.
 
It kills me that so many skilled guys have to put so much effort into fixing a product to make it work. Seems like it would be easier to make our own from scratch than continue to have to fix "the pros" products. Is having them charge another $2-3 to get QC up the answer? I'm not trying to dump on HH, but man there has to be a better way.
 
I have to say that I'm very impressed with my latest order 1 boys ax and 2 hatchet handles all where AA hand picked and no lacquer. All had almost perfect grain orientation one has some hart wood the other a little darker than normal and the 28'' has some mineral striations running threw it. Living in the High Desert in SoCal I'm going haft them and wait until the humidity drops to below 15% and then seal and wedge them. Will send some pic's in the next day or so!
 
My last order came with poplar wedges that were useless; three of them. I wonder why they bother. Do they know and not care or not have a clue.
 
The wedges I got with the last order seem OK but I have some Jarra that I'll use because I like the contrast.
 
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